Cassiar Highway
- Kim Martinez
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Once we turned south from the Alaska Highway, the natural route was to take the Cassiar Highway. So we turned onto the rather small, quiet, almost country-looking road that marked the beginning of our Cassiar Highway adventure.
The Cassiar Highway is about 450 miles long, almost all of it through wilderness. There are only about six “towns” along the highway, and none has more than 1,000 residents—most have fewer than 500. With so few people living along the route, services are few and far between.
But the scenery is beautiful and captivating: rugged mountains, glacier-fed lakes and rivers, dense forests and broad valleys stretching seemingly forever.
The Cassiar is mostly paved, but it is often narrow with little or no shoulder. There are rough and patched sections, occasional loose gravel, narrow bridges and a few grades approaching 8%. It is definitely a road to take your time on—which is fine, because the views make you want to slow down anyway.
Boya Lake
Within the first 50 miles we came to one of the prettiest lakes we have seen in Canada—Boya Lake.
The lake is incredibly inviting and, surprisingly, actually warm by Canadian standards in the summer. The water was a beautiful Caribbean blue, and its unusual shape created endless little areas that looked perfect for exploring by kayak or canoe.
Every time it looked like the lake was coming to an end, we would discover another connection opening into yet another section that seemed just as big.
Unfortunately, our RV was too large to camp here, so instead we spent the day wandering the trails and simply appreciating this gorgeous lake. It immediately went onto our list of places where we wished we had brought a canoe.
Jade City
Jade City. Okay, this is one of those places that falls into my “I just don’t get it” category.
That doesn’t really mean anything except that occasionally there are very popular tourist places—Branson, Missouri, comes to mind—that everyone seems to love and I just don’t quite understand the attraction.
Jade City is certainly nothing like Branson, except for one surprising similarity: people apparently find it fascinating. Jade City even had its own reality television show for seven seasons!
It is basically a quirky roadside tourist stop along the Cassiar Highway. But since there are so few establishments of any kind along the Cassiar, you really can’t miss it—and you should probably stop at least once just to see what all the fuss is about.
So we did.
The Jade City store is owned by a family that mines jade in the Cassiar Mountains, which was the basis of the reality show. Inside and outside, the place is all about jade.
There is jade everywhere. Heaps of it. Literally.
Jade in boxes, bags and bins. Jade piled on shelves and scattered around outside. Huge bins filled with random pieces of jade, most of which I couldn't begin to imagine what I would do with. Thousands and thousands of pieces seemed to be everywhere you looked.
We wandered around, took it all in—and moved on.
Apparently tour buses regularly stop here, so clearly plenty of people “get it” more than I do!
[ Add photos here ]
Kinaskan Lake
Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park is a first-come, first-served campground, so we left extra early hoping to secure a waterfront site large enough for our RV.
Our timing was perfect.
Several sites had just opened up, and we had our choice of some of the best views in the campground. We set up and almost immediately dialed ourselves into relax mode.
There was something incredibly calming about this lake. The water was a deep marine blue, and “soothing” is probably the best word to describe the entire setting—blue water, mountains, trees and fish jumping from the lake.
We found a trail that followed the river flowing out of the lake and eventually led us to a waterfall. There was also a “paddle” option to cross the river and continue exploring, but alas…that will have to go onto the future list for when we return with a canoe!
Instead, we explored what we could on foot and later backtracked to a restaurant we had passed along the highway for a late lunch.
It was a fun little place, filled with taxidermy mounts—not exactly my favorite décor—but somehow it was the perfect fit for our Cassiar Highway adventure. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the local food before heading back to our peaceful spot on the lake.
Meziadin Lake
Meziadin Lake is huge.
We spotted the lake from the highway and then drove for miles and miles alongside it before finally reaching the portion where the provincial park is located. There really aren't roads, trails or developed areas circling the lake, which makes it feel even larger and more remote.
This is a lake made for boating, and once again we scored an amazing waterfront campsite.
The water was a soft emerald color and absolutely mesmerizing. We spent hours just relaxing beside it—and once again dreaming about how much fun it would be to have a boat or canoe to explore beyond what we could see from shore.
We had heard there were areas nearby where bears might be feeding as the salmon began moving through the rivers, so we headed out several times to scout the most promising spots.
Our efforts paid off when we got great views of a coastal brown bear eating berries alongside the road!
On another outing, we ventured down a long, wide dirt road and eventually found a historic First Nations fish camp.
Salmon fishing was closed to the general public at the time we were there, which had to be a bit of torture for fishermen staying on Meziadin Lake. The lake and surrounding watershed are incredibly important salmon habitat, with a large percentage of the Nass River sockeye population migrating into the Meziadin watershed to spawn.
At the fish camp, First Nations fishermen were catching salmon near the waterfall on the river and were permitted to sell their catch.
We bought an entire salmon for $30 CAD—about $22 USD—and Manny cut it up himself.
That night we cooked one of the salmon steaks.
We both agreed: it was by far the best salmon we had ever eaten.
We immediately wished we could run back and buy more, but unfortunately we simply didn't have anywhere to keep another whole salmon.
The Cassiar Highway
The Cassiar Highway is an adventure all on its own—remote wilderness, rugged mountains, wildlife and some of the most beautiful lakes we have seen anywhere in Canada.
We would absolutely drive this stretch again, but next time we would bring a canoe. So many of these lakes beg to be explored from the water rather than simply admired from shore.
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